​A celebration of choral repertoire in the hallowed chapels of St John’s College, Trinity College and Jesus College Cambridge, our 2016 Festival of the Voice (12-15 May) showcases exceptional home-grown talent which is now internationally regarded. Recognised as a hub of historically-informed performance and education, this year's Festival celebrates core composers Bach, Monteverdi and Gesualdo contrasting them with works by Schubert, Beethoven and Ligeti.

Our Artist-in-Residence is star a cappella group VOCES8. Winners of Classic FM’s Album of the Year 2015 for Lux, VOCES8 includes two Trinity alumni. Acclaimed tenor James Gilchrist is ex King’s, and The Gesualdo Six’s director, composer and organist Owain Park, is at Trinity. This year we also welcome Belgium stars Vox Luminis and the Three Medieval Tenors who exploreConductus, the forgotten song of the Middle Ages.

Especially for festival week, services by the world renowned choirs of St John’s College and King’s College feature works by Palestrina, Vivaldi and Bach.

Faye Newton sopranoPamela ThorbyrecorderSusanna Pell violJacob Heringman luteInspired by, and reflecting, the combination of instruments shown in Titian's painting entitled “Venus and Cupid with a Lute Player” (1555-65) on display at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, a programme of Italian Renaissance vocal and instrumental music will be performed by members of the Northern Early Music Collective on Saturday 30 April at 7.15 pm.

This marvellous painting is of particular interest from a musical point of view, in that it presents clear and realistic depictions of mid sixteenth-century instruments and musical part books. The programme takes these elements as a starting point, and centres on Italian (mainly Venetian) secular music of the sixteenth century, with special emphasis on love songs and on the repertoire of the middle of the century, the time in which the painting was created, by composers including Verdelot, Willaert, Ganassi, Ortiz and Arcadelt.

Tickets: £25, £20 (concessions and Friends of The Fitzwilliam Museum) including pre-concert refreshments available from 01223 332904 or by emailing education@fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk.

This concert is promoted in partnership with The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and will be performed in front of the painting.